1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink cartridge attachment/detachment device which loads an ink cartridge into a main body of a recording apparatus by sliding the ink cartridge, to a recording apparatus having such an attachment/detachment device, and to a liquid ejection apparatus having such an attachment/detachment device.
Such a liquid ejection apparatus includes not only a recording apparatus, such as an ink jet recording apparatus, a copier, or a facsimile machine, that ejects ink from a recording head serving as a liquid ejection head to record images on a recording material, but also an apparatus which ejects a liquid corresponding to an intended purpose, instead of ink, from a liquid ejection head, which corresponds to the recording head, onto an ejected liquid target material, which corresponds to the recording material, to attach liquid to the ejected liquid target material. In addition to the recording head, the liquid ejection head can be a color material ejection head used for manufacturing a color filter for a liquid crystal display, an electrode material (conductive paste) ejection head used for forming an electrode for an organic EL display or a surface emitting display (FED), a bio-organic ejection head used for manufacturing a bio-chip, or a sample ejection head which ejects a sample as a precision pipette.
2. Description of the Related Art
A description will now be given for an ink jet printer as an example of an ink jet recording apparatus or a liquid ejection apparatus. A comparatively large pressing force is required to load an ink cartridge into an ink jet printer. When separate ink cartridges are provided for individual colors, the pressing force of about 4.9 to 6.9 N is sufficient. However, since a single package type ink cartridge with ink cartridges for a plurality of colors integrally formed includes a plurality of needles are provided, for example, in case of six colors, seven needles (for six colors and a waste ink tank) are provided, a very large pressing force of 34.3 to 48.3 N is required. Such a large pressing force can be exerted so long as the ink cartridge is loaded vertically. However, when the ink cartridge is loaded by sliding the ink cartridge in a horizontal direction, an unnatural force is also imposed on the ink jet printer. Accordingly, the application of a large pressing force is practically impossible.
Disclosed in JP-A-11-157094 is an ink cartridge attachment/detachment device that uses leverage principle to obtain a large pressing force. According to this device, the rotation of a cartridge attachment/detachment lever is transmitted to a link plate to enable unlocking of a link lever and loading of an ink cartridge into a holder. However, the ink cartridge attachment/detachment device does not include a cartridge holding unit which holds the ink cartridge when the ink cartridge is inserted, and thus the erroneous insertion of the ink cartridge does not occur from the start. A recording apparatus having a cartridge holding unit according to the related art will now be shown, and the problems in the related art will be described.
Here, ‘insertion of ink cartridge’ means that the ink cartridge is inserted into the recording apparatus from the outside and held by the cartridge holding unit. Further, ‘erroneous insertion of ink cartridge’ means that the ink cartridge is inserted but is not normally held by the cartridge holding unit.
FIGS. 21 to 25B show a recording apparatus having a cartridge holding unit and an ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing unit in the related art.
FIG. 21 is a rear perspective view showing an ink cartridge attachment/detachment device when a lever arm is located at a reset position at which insertion of the ink cartridge is enabled. FIG. 22 is a rear perspective view showing an ink cartridge attachment/detachment device when a lever arm is located at a set position at which the lever arm is supposed to be when loading of the ink cartridge is completed.
FIG. 23 is a perspective view showing an ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing unit on a magnified scale as obliquely viewed from below. FIGS. 24A and 24B are bottom views showing the operation states of an ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing unit upon typical insertion of the ink cartridge. FIGS. 25A and 25B are bottom views showing the operation states of an ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing unit upon erroneous insertion of the ink cartridge.
As shown in FIG. 21, an ink cartridge attachment/detachment device 500 is provided at a lower portion of a recording apparatus. The ink cartridge attachment/detachment device 500 includes a pair of left and right cartridge holding units 530. The cartridge holding units 530 are the same as cartridge holding units 30 of this invention, and thus the detailed description will be omitted. Herein, only a simple description will be given.
An insertion opening 580 into which an ink cartridge 511 is inserted is provided in the ink cartridge attachment/detachment device 500. When a lever arm 563 is located at a position shown in FIG. 21, the ink cartridge 511 is inserted into the insertion opening 580 by a first predetermined stroke and held by the cartridge holding unit 530 (30). Then, as shown in FIG. 22, a knob 563a of the lever arm 563 is moved to the right side in the drawing, and rotation of the lever arm 563 causes the cartridge holding unit 530 to be moved by a second predetermined stroke required for loading the ink cartridge 511 through a power transmitting and converting mechanism 532.
As shown in FIG. 22, when the lever arm 563 is located at a right position, that is, at a position other than the reset position, the cartridge holding unit 530, which is an internal structure, cannot receive the ink cartridge 511 even if the ink cartridge 511 is inserted. In this state, if the ink cartridge 511 is inserted, the ink cartridge 511 is not normally held by the cartridge holding unit 530. This is referred to as ‘erroneous insertion of ink cartridge’. If the ink cartridge 511 is forcibly loaded from the ‘erroneous insertion of ink cartridge’ state, the internal structure may be damaged. This is referred to as ‘erroneous loading of ink cartridge’.
Accordingly, in the related art, as shown in FIG. 23, ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing units 501 are provided in the ink cartridge attachment/detachment device 500. The ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing units 501 prevent the erroneous insertion of the ink cartridge 511 when the lever arm 563 is located at a set position shown in FIG. 22 at which the lever arm 563 is supposed to be when loading of the ink cartridge 511 is completed or when the lever arm 563 is located at a position other than a reset position shown in FIG. 21 at which loading of the ink cartridge 511 is enabled.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 23, each of the ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing units 501 includes an erroneous insertion preventing protrusion 502, a slide lock piece 548, and a guide groove 554. Here, the guide groove 554 is provided so as to be engaged with a guide protrusion 553 which is formed in the slide lock piece 548. Further, the slide lock piece 548 is provided so as to be engaged with an engagement concave portion 557 which is provided in the ink cartridge 511. In addition, pressing ribs 506 formed in the ink cartridge are provided so as to be brought into contact with lock sliders 536 in the ink cartridge attachment/detachment device when the ink cartridge 511 is inserted. The erroneous insertion protrusion 502 is a part formed so as to protrude toward the lock slider using a part of a subframe 560 which is a fixed frame 561 to be engaged with a main frame 562. Further, unlike an embodiment described below, the guide groove 554 has parallel portions 503 parallel to the insertion direction of the ink cartridge at a start end and a terminal end, as shown in FIGS. 24A to 25B. The parallel portion 503 at the start end is formed long, and the parallel portion 503 at the terminal end is formed short. Further, a slope portion 504 is formed to connect the parallel portions 504 at the start and terminal end. The length of the slope portion 503 is made considerably shorter than that in an embodiment described below.
In addition to the shape of the guide groove 554, the relative positions of the slope portion 504 of the guide groove 554 and the erroneous insertion preventing protrusion 502 are important. That is, when the lever arm 563 is located at the set position, and when the ink cartridge 511 is inserted, as shown in FIG. 25B, the slide lock piece 548 is brought into contact with the erroneous insertion preventing protrusion 502 and takes a locus for preventing the erroneous insertion of the ink cartridge 511.
Therefore, when the ink cartridge 511 is inserted in a proper state where the lever arm 563 is located at the reset position, as shown in FIG. 24, the slide lock piece 548 can reach the engagement concave portion 557, without being brought into contact with the erroneous insertion preventing protrusion 502, and thus the holding state of the cartridge holding unit 530 is ensured.
With this configuration, in the ink cartridge attachment/detachment device 500 of the related art, the erroneous insertion of the ink cartridge 511 due to the positional difference of the lever arm 563 rarely occurs. Further, since a size of a slider holder 537 does not need to be accurately set and a complex attitude keeping structure does not need to be used so as not to cause the inclination of the ink cartridge 511, with only a cam groove 554 having a comparatively simple structure, the erroneous insertion of the ink cartridge 511 can be prevented.
However, in the ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing unit 501 of the related art, when a user inserts the ink cartridge 511 by a predetermined distance in a state where the insertion of the ink cartridge 511 is not enabled, the ink cartridge 511 are brought into contact with the specific members (502, 536, and 548) of the ink cartridge erroneous insertion preventing unit 501, and the ink cartridge 511 cannot be inserted beyond that. Therefore, the ink cartridge 511 (506) and the specific members (502, 536, and 548) are brought into contact with each other in the recording apparatus, and thus the user cannot visually check why the ink cartridge 511 cannot be inserted beyond that. For this reason, the user tries to insert the ink cartridge 511 with all the strength, and the mechanisms in the recording apparatus may be damaged.